Take The Kings Concubine Sketched By Anne OBrien Depicted In Digital Copy

I lack the will to keep trying this bloated, draggy snoozer, The prospect of pushing onward fills me with ambivalence at best, sheer dread at worst it's just SO BORING, amp I don't GAF about anything that's happened or will ever happen to these people.
Alice keeps banging on about how ugly she is, amp how she wants security, amp how everyone hates her, . . blah blah blah. I just DO NOT CARE,

Byebye.

Normally I'd give this a standardstar DNF rating, but Alice's continual burbling amp the author's meandering prose pissed me off enough to round down.
Oops. Guess I'm feeling mean today, :D Little is known about the life of Alice Perrers, but The King's Concubine strives admirably to fill in the gaps and to paint positive intentions and motivations onto a woman whom history has branded as a villain.


I'm a sucker for English historical fiction, so on many levels I enjoyed the book, It was an engaging and thorough look at a fascinating time period, and at a fascinating monarch,

I thought the love between Edward and Philippa was handled with a perfect touch, and I found the premise that Philippa arranged for the king to have a mistress completely plausible.
The complex relationship was wellwritten and evocative,

However, my enjoyment was marred a little by the choices O'Brien made to justify Alice's actions, While I applaud her for giving Alice agency as opposed to so many books where the main character is just carried along by fate and makes no choices for herself Alice made such a series of blatantly bad or dangerous choices that I found it increasingly hard to sympathize with her.


If the book is woven around very few known events, then I'm led to infer that the justifications for Alice's choices were O'Brien's addition.
Doing what you know is wrong or, at least, sure to backfire for the right reasons doesn't make it right, I wanted to see Alice doing what is right for the right reasons sometimes, Once in a while. Or at least, letting the reader hit a few major crossroads without lines like "I would come to regret that, " I wanted some time to relate to and approve of her choices BEFORE learning that they would lead to trouble, It would have gone a long way toward making me sympathetic to the character,

This is the first historical I have read about King Edward III and Queen Phillipa of Hainault and its really good, Most of what I read is usually set in the Tudor age or during the Wars of the Roses, The King's Concubine was refreshing, and from the first page it immersed me in the medieval era, Alice at first was naive, but then as I followed her story, and her ups and downs at court, you realise how two faced life was then.
One minute she was the favourite and a very powerful woman, The next banished and cast away,

This book serves as a great background to the upcoming troubles that follow ie, . . the Wars of the Roses, Descendents of Edward III and their claim for the throne,

Richly and lavishly described, the book kept me captivated throughout,

Thank you Anne a beautiful book! Alice Perrers is ath century orphan sheltered and used by nuns who on a long and winding path becomes the mistress to King Edward III.
She subsequently marries another man, William de Windsor, is banished, then unbanished, then rebanished and finally reinstated in civil society thanks to the great love of Windsor.


As historical fiction, the book is loosely based on facts and tells Alice's side of the story, The author appears to be Alice's apologist and justifies her actions, especially when explaining the relationship with the two people she betrayed the most:Queen Phillippa, to whom she owes everything, as she brought her to the court in hopes that the King would select Alice as his mistress andthe King, who gave her a license to find another man.
Alice has been painted as a manipulative, conniving vulture in history, but we didn't understand her soft, loyal side, When you get to know her you can see that her actions were justified, It is hard to believe until you realize that this book is a romance novel not historical fiction,

If you look at the book as a romance novel, you can enjoy it as a kind of "mindcandy, " A book club friend with a hard copy of the book saw the "Harlequin" mark on the back cover I had an ereader which does not have the Harlequin reference.
That disclosure gave the right context to the book, Alice's story is a romance novel, Alice shares her bed with three men who respect her and show kindness and gentleness in three different ways, Love is a challenge and true love can overcome all, Classic romance novel themes.

There are two flaws that make The King's Concubine less satisfying, First, the interview with the author and "Questions for Discussion" give the book an air of sophistication that is unearned, This is a romance novel, It's not Shakespeare and doesn't deserve the scrutiny of discussion questions, Secondly, Alice needs an editor, There werepages of material in abook, over half the book was meandering and repetitive, Edit the book and represent it for what it is and you have a pleasant Saturday read, Reread for therd orth time, Alice is such a strong character and one of my favorites! I must admit, this was a very enjoyable read.
I expected not to like to like it, Who would have ever thought I could feel sympathy for let alone like Alice Perrers Not me certainly but Anne O'Brien did the unthinkable and made a believer out of me.
I enjoyed the spin on her character immensely, I also enjoyed William Windsor's character very much, He was a likable gent, I didn't find many dull moments throughout this read, Although I knew what was going to happen with some historical events, I was still on the edge of my seat during those moments.
Obviously as this is historical fiction so there are some historical inaccuracies as we know it, Nonetheless, I enjoyed the spin,

Narration was goodat times I found it hard to distinguish the characters sostars,

I would recommend this book, I have been wanting to delve into the world of historical fiction for a long time, and when I saw this book I just knew this would be the one to tempt me into never before sailed seas.


I enjoyed it from start to finish, The provocative and ambitious Alice is a wonderful character, and the author has done a fantastic job of bringing Kind Edward III's court to life.
Everything from the political intrigues, and grim realities of illness and death, to the wonderfully decadent dresses and and jewelry are described in stunning

detail.


All of the characters and as true to history as could possibly be written without a time machine, and there is not one of them that fell flat.
I loved Alice, adored the King and Queen and fell in love with William de Windsor,

The crimes had heavy prices, and every move was daring and sumptuously dangerous,

There was honestly nothing to dislike here, The story was enveloping and engaging without ever being in danger of falling into boredom, The characters were lifelike in all their sullen criticisms, and the writing was clear, and keeping with the timeline,

I loved every second, and devoured this book whole, I'm looking forward to reading more, REVIEW:

Alice Perrers was born in the year ofduring the plague, She was raised in a convent, While at the convent Alice was quite a problem at times, She refused to take the veil, She believed that she had a bigger and better future in line for her, She left the horrid beginnings of her life behind her to become mistress to Edward III, but like always she was alone,

Early in her life she met with royalty and that changes her entire life, Very much in love with her husband, Edward, Queen Philippa picks Alice as a ladyinwaiting, The Queen was extremely sick, Alice speaks her mind, although sometimes she regrets it, She maintains that she be taken seriously, She puts the make on an even older king, She intended no betrayal but she captures the Kings heart, When in the privacy of the King's chambers, Alice finds the pleasures and satisfaction of her position, She is torn between being the Queen's confidante and being the King's mistress, She has herself , and only herself,

She promises herself she will act this double role until the bitter end, Edward lavished her and she amassed wealth and influence for herself, but all along she is making enemies, Who is going to stand side by side with Alice when the walls come tumbling down on her

The story was told from Alice's point of view, in first person and this is how you begin understanding some of the things she does.
Was Alice a golddigging concubine or was she protecting herself for the future by taking what she could when she had the chance, Did she not leave the King's side because she truly cared for him or was it because if she was not there, she wouldn't get anything.


These are just a few of the questions you will be asking yourself while reading, The answers are there. Alice lived a life as no other, I would recommend this book to anyone, You won't want to quit reading, There is no boredom in this book, This is a pageturner don't put down keeper, This is one magnificent book, I truly fell in love with the story and characters,

I would give this bookStars if I could but since I can'tSTARS and that doesn't do it justice,

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Manic Readers on behalf of the author, Anne O'Brien, for this unbiased review.




My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin UK Mira for an early digital edition to read and review,


The Kings Concubine is set during the reign of Edward III, and describes his relationship with his wife, Philippa of Hainault, and his mistress, Alice Perrers.
Little is truly known about the life of Alice Perrers, and yet Anne OBrien has woven a skilful and believable story about how, in the mids, young Alice became one of the Queens waiting women.
The way in which Alice colluded with Queen Philippa in order to begin a sexual relationship with the King, is described in a compassionate and romantic manner.
The story quickly evolves into a sympathetic and warm account of an aging king and his love affair, not just with his astute young mistress, but also with his wife, and courtiers.
The medieval court is beautifully described and is perfectly placed within the context of the story,

There is much debate about Alice Perrers, and the influence she had on the aging King, she is often depicted as an avaricious, scheming harpy, or as a femme fatale, but in The Kings Concubine, Anne OBrien has given a lighter and possibly more sympathetic view of this charismatic medieval mistress.


I enjoyed this version of Alices early life, and would definitely recommend this book to my friends who enjoy historical fiction by Philippa Gregory, Vanora Bennett and Emma Campion
Stories about the mistresses of Kings have always intrigued me.
This story was made even more so because I had just read The King Must Die, which was about Edward's mother and his early years on the throne.


Not much is known about Alice Perrers, other than she served as a Lady in Waiting to Queen Phillipa and that she became the King's Mistress.
Oh and she was intensely disliked by most people,


I think the why's of that dislike are pretty obvious,

Edward and Phillipa had a very good marriage as far as royalty is concerned, Yes, they loved each other, That's what makes the way O'Brien brings King and Lady together a little bit hard to take, Anne suggests that Alice became Edward's lover because the Queen wanted her too, because her illness prevented her from enjoying the marriage bed any longer.


Hmmm.

I'm not sure if that idea works well with me, but somehow Alice, who was obviously low born, made it to the inner circles of the monarchy.
Lowborn though she was, she was also, oddly for that time, a very astute businesswomen,

This book does a lot to cast a more favorable light on Alice, mostly in the fact that she harbors some love for Edward, but I'm not sure if she deserved the light to be cast on her.
Let's face it, she was greedy and power hungry, She managed to accumulatemanors during her time as the King's Mistress, and she even managed to get them back after a corruption trial.
She could have lost her life there, but she managed too to talk her way out of it

I think if one thing can be said for Alice Perrers, it is that she was a woman hundreds of years before her time.
In truth, I couldn't like Alice as I read this book, I could admire her though, because she rose from the ashes and for a time, ruled a kingdom, I found Alice Perrers or Alice de Windsor, as we should really call her, to be an uninspiring heroine, She was greedy and selfserving, Maybe she wasn't really like that but Ms, O'Brien would have you believe she was, She was constantly stealing calling a spade a spade and justifying her actions on every other page, Enough already. I get it. She wants money. She wants land. Life for a medieval woman of no rank was rough, She had to look out for herself and her children, I get it, I didn't feel sorry for this woman at all, .